More info on the closing of David Mirvish Books in an email from Eleanor Johnston, the store’s manager:
“I think the most succinct answer to the question of the bookstore closing is that there are not enough booksales for the endeavour to be satifying. I don’t mean to be coy, but to say it is not “worthwhile” would mean that it is all about money. Which it is not. There has been much satifaction in the projects and community around the bookstore. Thus the seemingly simplistic phrase “it’s time” is the best way to describe it.”
One staff member will stay and manage online sales when we close. That work will continue in the building. We will probably rehang the Stella, shifting it down, but there is no imperative, and much to do before that can happen.”
Some staff feel the store has been a key place in their geography of the city. “I couldn’t agree more,” Johnston writes. “There was a period when the bookstore felt out of that geography with the rise of Queen St., Harbourfront, etc. That changed in the last ten years as the artistic stratas of the city evolved and diffused across the city. At least that is how it felt to me.”
The bricks and mortar bookstore is officially slated to close February 28.
4 comments
With more and more book stores going online, its amazing any are still open (along with music stores). Im guilty of buying my first book the other day from http://www.shopoodle.com
-Steve
I think Eleanor meant to be coy.
Hi
OK, it looks you wont be changing your mind.
What will happen to all of the books in the store? Will there be a closing sale?
Eastender
Closing? How unfortunate for Toronto. Considering his creative revival of theatres here and in London, I can’t help wondering whether Ed Mirvish wouldn’t have come up with a solution that was commercially viable while contributing to the spirit of the city.
Isn’t there some way?